Canadians Be Warned: Bell and Rogers Creating Ads Based Upon Everything You Do Online

Okay despite the dramatic link-bait title of this post, Bell Media and Rogers are both planning on taking data usage information to tailor ads based upon your preferences, locations you visit, and whatever else works well to sell you more things. This means the shows you watch, the calls you make, the websites you visit will all be used to create customized ads.

I think it’s one thing for an intelligence agency to collect personal data in order to protect the country, but it’s way different when a company that you pay uses your information to improve the ads they plaster onto their programs. I’d think one of the perks of actually paying for a service would be receive it free of other costs such as advertising. It’s another thing for Google or Facebook to sell your information when that is how they make their money.

The difference between Bell’s tracking program and Rogers is that with Rogers you have to opt-in to take part in whereas with Bell you have to opt out. Personally, I don’t mind my data being used to show me ads that are better suited to my interests. However, I do NOT like the precedent it sets for privacy invasion going forward.

What do you think, is this yet another intrusion of privacy or does the service provider hold the right?

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One thought on “Canadians Be Warned: Bell and Rogers Creating Ads Based Upon Everything You Do Online”

Hi there Colton, my name is Chris and I work for Rogers’ social media team.

I think what you’re thinking of is something we recently announced called Rogers Alerts – it’s a new location-based mobile solution that gives Rogers wireless customers access to personalized, location-based offers from their favourite retailers on their smartphone. It doesn’t have anything to do with your usage habits online, though. If a customer chooses to opt into Rogers Alerts, they’ll get an SMS offer when they’re near one of the participating stores, simple as that.

Just to be clear, we will only use customer information we hold where they have opted into the program and we will be clear with them about how we use their information. We will never use the content of calls or who has been called. What is paramount to us is that we only use customer information for their benefit and where they have opted in.